Greek and Roman Ghost StoriesCollison-Morley, Lacy
History
Greek and Roman Ghost Stories
Collison-Morley, Lacy
Ghosts
"The son of a rich merchant of Jerusalem sets off after his father's
death to see the world. At Stamboul he finds hanging in chains the body
of a Jew, which the Sultan has commanded to be left there till his
co-religionists shall have repaid the sum that the man is suspected of
having stolen from his royal master. The hero pays this sum, and has the
corpse buried. Later, during a storm at sea he is saved by a stone, on
which he is brought to land, whence he is carried by an eagle back to
Jerusalem. There a white-clad man appears to him, explaining that he is
the ghost of the dead, and that he has already appeared as stone and
eagle. The spirit further promises the hero a reward for his good deed
in the present and in the future life."
This is one of the simplest forms in which the story appears. It is
generally found compounded with some other similar tale; but the main
facts are that a man buries a corpse found on the sea-shore from
philanthropic motives. "Later he is met by the ghost of the dead man,
who in many cases promises him help on condition of receiving, in
return, half of whatever he gets. The hero obtains a wife (or some other
reward), and, when called upon, is ready to fulfil his bargain as to
sharing his possessions,"[89] not excepting the wife. Some of the
characteristics of the tale are to be found in the story of Pelops and
Cillas, related above, which Mr. Gerould does not mention.
Pausanias[90] has a story of one of Ulysses' crew. Ulysses' ship was
driven about by the winds from one city to another in Sicily and Italy,
and in the course of these wanderings it touched at Tecmessa. Here one
of the sailors got drunk and ravished a maiden, and was stoned to death
in consequence by the indignant people of the town. Ulysses did not
trouble about what had occurred, and sailed away. Soon, however, the
ghost of the murdered man became a source of serious annoyance to the
people of the place, killing the inhabitants of the town, regardless of
age and sex. Finally, matters came to such a pass that the town was
abandoned. But the Pythian priestess bade the people return to Tecmessa
and appease the hero by building him a temple and precinct of his own,
and giving him every year the fairest maiden of the town to wife. They
took this advice, and there was no more trouble from the ghost. It
chanced, however, that Euthymus came to Tecmessa just when the people
were paying the dead sailor the annual honours. Learning how matters
stood, he asked to be allowed to go into the temple and see the maiden.
At their meeting he was first touched with pity, and then immediately
fell desperately in love with her. The girl swore to be his, if he would
save her. Euthymus put on his armour and awaited the attack of the
monster. He had the best of the fight, and the ghost, driven from its
home, plunged into the sea. The wedding was, of course, celebrated with
great splendour, and nothing more was heard of the spirit of the drunken
sailor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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